Generally speaking, fish hooks are designed for catching fish, and little or no attention has been paid to health or humanitarian considerations. If, as usually happens, a fish which takes a baited hook swallows it, there is little chance to remove the hook without further hurting the fish. This has several disadvantages. Fish that are too small to take legally, or that are caught only for sport, frequently cannot survive removal of the hook, and throwing back such fish is an empty gesture.
The risk of injury to the person fishing when trying to remove a swallowed hook is significant. If the hook used is rusty, the fish may become infected bacterially, which adds dangers of tetanus if a person removing the hook is injured, or of infection by reason of eating a fish caught with it.